In certain applications, it is desirable to limit the amount of time a signal is active in CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) circuits to protect the circuits against various circuit failure modes. One example of a circuit failure mode is a dynamic decay due to subthreshold leakage. A shift register circuit 10 is shown in FIG. 1 for the purpose of illustrating the deleterious effects of subthreshold leakage. The shift register circuit 10 is shown with only three stages for ease of understanding. Each stage comprises a pass gate 15, a dynamic storage node 35, 45 or 55 and an inverter formed by a PFET (P-channel field effect transistor) 20 and an NFET (N-channel field effect transistor) 25. A shift signal 27 and its inverse, formed by an inverter 28, are connected to each pass gate 15. The pass gates 15 store the logic values at the dynamic storage nodes 35, 45, and 55, which are buffered through the inverters to nodes 30, 40 and 50. When the shift signal 27 is high, the FETs (field effect transistors) forming the dynamic latch 15 "turn on," and, as a result, the logic values at the nodes 30, 40 and 50 pass to nodes 35, 45 and 55, respectively. In this way, the logic states stored by the dynamic latches 15 are shifted right each time the shift input signal 27 pulses high. However, when the shift signal 27 is high, subthreshold leakage occurs through the FETs forming the dynamic latches 15. As used herein, subthreshold leakage is gate current when an FET is conducting. A PFET conducts from source to drain or "turns on" when its gate voltage is low with respect to its source; whereas an NFET turns on when its gate voltage is high with respect to its source. If the shift signal 27 remains high long enough, the subthreshold leakage can be severe enough to cause the latched charge to dissipate. To protect the dynamic latches 15 from failure due to subthreshold leakage requires careful control of the timing of the shift signal 27. However, given the magnitude of variations present in CMOS circuit manufacturing, a one-size-fits-all solution is not practical.